Sadly, I have to agree with Tim's assessment of A&E's new version of Lathe of Heaven. I gave the movie one rocket out of five. That one rocket is there because the casting and acting were pretty good, and the costume/set design and directing were decent. I have to say that A&E's version is prettier than the 1980 PBS version of LOH, which already looks dated, but the PBS version is superior in every other way.

        I gave the A&E version only the one rocket, because those surface positive qualities are the only good qualities about this movie. The script is atrocious. The themes and ambiguities of the book are completely absent from the movie. Major plot points in the book are cut in favor of the love story, and by the end of the movie you are left with the feeling that perhaps changing reality with your dreams isn't such a disturbing thing after all. This movie cuts out the soul of the book and replaces it with fluff.

** SPOILER WARNING ** It's time for me to get into details and so usually I'd put a spoiler warning here in case you wanted to watch the movie at a later time. In this case, I'm putting the spoiler warning here for the sake of the book (This movie is not worth it). So, if you haven't read The Lathe of Heaven, stop reading here and go find a copy of the book. It's great!

Among the elements from the book which are absent from this movie version are two biggies: the aliens, and "The Break" (when all the different realities become merged in a fragmented patchwork manner). I can only assume that A&E thought that these elements were too "science fictiony" for their sophisticated audience. But, apparently, they didn't think their audience was sophisticated enough to follow the moral ambiguities and themes of the story, such as the idea that trying to do "the greatest good for the greatest number" could in fact destroy more than it helped. The morally ambiguous Dr. Haber of the book, who does bad things by trying to do good, is replaced in the movie by a man who is simply evil in his hunger for power.

        Without the most dramatic examples of the damage that changing reality with dreams can do (the alien attack and "the Break"), the whole concept feels much tamer in the movie. Thus, the disturbing feeling which the book so effectively inspired is largely absent from the film. Although the ending of the movie bears a bit of resemblance to the book - in both cases Haber ends up in a mental institute and Orr and Heather are reunited - the movie turns this into a run of the mill "Happy Ending". The evil Haber is punished and the good lovers are rewarded for their goodness. The movie leaves us with the sense that everything will be okay now, although it hasn't given us any reason to believe that Orr will not contiue to alter reality at random with his dreams in the future. The only clue as to why things will be okay is the character of Orr's landlord, who has been turned into a sort of "voice of God" figure who is mysteriously conscious of all the reality changes. His presence and words imply that everything has happened for the best after all. This character is perhaps supposed to replace the aliens, who seem to have mysterious knowledge about Orr's "effective dreams", but as with the other changes, the depth and ambiguity of the concept is lost: With the aliens' help, Orr comes to realize not that everything in the world is right, but that you must take life as it is, both the parts that are right and the ones that are not, and do the best you can with the limited power you have as a person in that world.